He can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper in death (that is, if you aren't as much a group of dunderheads as he usually has to teach), but even Professor Severus Snape isn't immune from a little game of MTV "What If." It's hard to imagine now with Alan Rickman having put an indelible stamp on the character, but the role of the erstwhile Potions Master was originally offered to someone else entirely.

"They offered me Snape which is now ably being done by Alan," Tim Roth confirmed, before explaining how he wound up doing Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" remake instead.

"I was going to do both films ["Potter" and "Planet of the Apes"]. We rigged it so that I could fly back and forth. They figured out the schedule but it just got to be overwhelming in my mind," Roth confessed. "My kids really liked the books. They were really into me doing it, but the idea of being an ape with Tim was too good."

Roth, of course, would be far more age appropriate for the character (although still a bit old) -- much closer to Snape's real age than the 61-year-old Rickman. But beyond that, how would Roth's Snape have been different from Rickman's? What changes would he have brought to the character?

"I would have made [Snape] a very different guy," was all Roth would say. "But in the end I think it was the right decision since Alan's had some success with the character."

What do you think? How would Roth's Snape been different than Rickman's? Is there anyone out there who wishes Alan wasn't cast? Sound off below.